A turtle nicknamed “Mae West” shows the danger of throw-away plastics. Environmentalists with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation say the turtle crawled inside the plastic ring when it was young; it was deformed by the plastic constriction as it grew.

Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins, of the California-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, reinforce their campaign with grim images of wildlife maimed by plastics and samples of plastic-laden water from a swirling plastic “soup” called the North Pacific Gyre in the Pacific Ocean.

While there’s no way to clean up the North Pacific Gyre — a confluence of ocean currents twice the size of the United States and laden with plastic refuse — it’s not too late to stop further dumping, the couple say.

“…physical attractiveness was not the most important non-cognitive predictor of grades,” French said. “Instead grooming and personality were stronger predictors of academic success in high school for boys and girls, respectively.”

Looking at GPA as a function of a long list of individual, familial, school, and environmental characteristics that are likely to affect academic performance, the researchers were able to make several significant observations, including:

Physical attractiveness has a positive effect on GPA for both genders, but only when considered alone.

When physical attractiveness is considered along with grooming and personality, the positive effect of physical attractiveness on high school GPA turns negative for both genders.

Physical appearance can be a way for adolescents to either rebel or accept adult’s standards. However, whether the student is a “rebel” or a “conformist” does not have a significant independent effect on GPA.

The findings suggest that some degree of teacher bias is present in favor of, or against certain types of students.

All else equal, Hispanics and African Americans have lower GPAs than whites and girls have higher GPAs than males.

Students living with a mother who attended college, those that live in a two-parent household and those attending a small school have higher GPAs than those in different circumstances.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 22, 2009) — Not all technology meets human needs, and some technologies provide only the illusion of having met your needs.

But new research by psychologists at the University at Buffalo and Miami University, Ohio, indicates that illusionary relationships with the characters and personalities on favorite TV shows can provide people with feelings of belonging, even in the face of low self esteem or after being rejected by friends or family members.

moving animal models of exposure to clean air did not completely reverse the exposure-related pathologies, which means that the lung damage will be a life-long legacy of any children that grew up in it.

Another little boy has killed himself after classmates teased and bullied him and called him gay. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11-year-old Jaheem Herrera hung himself inside his home on Thursday afternoon. His little sister, Yerralis, found his body.”They called him gay and a snitch,” his stepfather said. “All the time they’d call him this.”Kate Harding wrote about the impact of homophobic bullying last week, on what would have been the 12th birthday of Carl Walker-Hoover, who committed suicide in April after months of being tormented with anti-gay slurs.

So this study suggests that our perceived level of self-worth effects our moral decisions. More specifically, it suggests that feelings of negative self-worth can predispose us to acting morally in an effort to fill up the self-worth bank account. If the account is already full, we might be predisposed to choosing not to act morally, or just not act at all.